Excuse me, do you have a second?

When you’re computer programming, 86,400 is a familiar figure. It’s the number of seconds in a day, and one (clumsy) way to find out yesterday’s date is to subtract 86,400 from the date and time – in seconds – right now.

It’s interesting to reflect on whether you believe 86,400 is a large or small number though.

A sum of money this big in most people’s currencies would be rather nice to be given (not so great in Vietnamese dong however – 86,400 dong is worth just about four dollars).

A crowd of people this size would pack most of the world’s bigger sports arenas.

On the other hand 86,400 grains of table salt would weigh just under 7 grams.

When it comes to time, however, you might agree that 86,400 seconds does sound rather a lot. Each and every day of your life you have all those seconds handed to you on a plate.

So what will you do with today’s 86,400?

And how many of them are you prepared to give to someone else? (Helpfully, giving it away doesn’t actually take it away from you. It’s one resource you can happily share without losing out.)

Giving your time is a great way to connect to others, and giving often makes you feel fine too.

You may not have money, but you do have time. So give it today like there’s no tomorrow.